Ants.

I'm really confused at the moment to what my favourite creatures are, the ants or the spiders. Tough competition. I just did about marine spiders though so let's look at Fiery ants.

Previously I took a very detailed look into how camels are way more amazing than you think, perfectly tuned to survival in extreme heat across every part of their bodies.

But camels are big and sturdy, and being so high off the ground means they don't really need to suffer the temperatures on the surface of the hot, hot sand, which can easily reach 70°C or above. Can any living creature survive that?

When I was in Korea, I went into a jimjilbang, a kind of multi-purpose spa, which had a hot room maintained at 80°C. This was the first time atmosphere was too hot for me. I thought I could sit it out as a challenge but... I'm pretty sure I would have died if I stayed there more than 2 minutes. It was literally evaporating my blood away. So this gave me a pretty nice insight into what some ants, right down on the surface, have to deal with. Er, anyway, to the point:

Cataglyphis bicolor

The Sahara Desert ant is one of the greatest survivors in the ant kingdom. Looking at the desert picture above, you wouldn't think it was a place full of life, but it is. Predators of this desert ant hide away during the day and come out to hunt at night when it's much cooler. Neat trick.

Other animals, usually arthropods of some sort try to roam outside but they're pretty stupid and often end up dying of heat stroke. The Sahara desert ant exploits this niche market: High noon in the hottest place on earth. Lots of easy dead food, none of the predators to be seen.

The ants lay in wait in the shadows until they detect the position of the sun is at its peak, and then they rush out, grab the dead stuff and bring it back. But is that so amazing? Let's do some comparisons.

Critical Thermal Maxima (CTM)

CTM is the temperature limit at which the majority of any given creature basically loses its ability to function mentally, cannot control its locomation and basically dies. Different animals have different CTMs.

Small mammals

A study looking at the CTM of small mammals found that their limits 'ranged from a low of 41.3°C in M. musculus to a high of 45.7°C in D. ordii'

This is quite impressive, I mean, mammals have pretty good temperature regulatory systems in their body so they can cool off or warm up as they see fit. To a point.

Ocymyrmex barbiger

Another ant that lives in extreme desert conditions, this barbiger is very well adapted for similar survival limits. However, this species 'falls into a heat coma' after only 25 seconds in 55°C conditions.

Melophorus bagoti

Also known as the red honey ant is another desert species located in Australia. Faring a little better, this critter can get through an hour of 54°C scorching daylight before collapsing into death.

How does the C.bicolor fare?

Well, according to research into the heat tolerance of ants, these ones continue to forage with a body temperature of over 50°C, and with an undefeated CTM of 55.1 +/- 1.1°C.

This thermotolerance or maybe even thermophilic (you never know) adaptation is seen across many ants willing to fill in the niche, including the Saharan silver ant and a variety of red honey ants, and they all have similar adaptations:

• Long legs raise their body higher above the surface. Looking at an ant this may not seem like much but it can actually make a difference of 6-7°C.

• They're fast. The C.bicolor can traverse the sands at around 1 metre per second. For reference, that's about the same as a human's walking pace.

• Heat shock proteins (HSP). These proteins are produced in response to extreme heat, and can be found in numerous species, but when compared to other ants:

...protein synthesis continues at temperatures up to 45 degrees C as compared to 39 degrees C for Formica and Drosophila

• Visual-spatial memory is a vital skill to have out in the repetitive desert. By using both terrestrial and celestial visual cues, they are able to perfectly track their time outside and time the safe duration before they, too inevitably succumb to the heat. Using their scented pheremones, tracking the sun, using mapped-out landmarks and even counting their own steps all contributes to a perfect, relentless operation.

There's more too. There's always more.

For example, the colonies have a rather specific strategy for their foraging efforts. The ants, rather than follow each other in a line, act singularly yet homogeneously. This means by sending a whole bunch of ants in random directions, the colony loses a few ants, but have a much larger spectrum of reward. They also have a variety of other search methods that 'quickly exploit occasional short-lived, but unpredictible, clumps of food within its foraging range.' Furthermore:

...they went out in a straight line in a direction and to a distance related to that of the previous find before commencing a semi-random search, on a path consisting of straight portions branching at random angles, with restriction on turns in a backward direction

Research into these ants go even further, delving into things such as thepolarization-sensitive interneurons in the optic lobe, but at this point it's safe to say these ants are just really good at living where we rather wouldn't. All these behavioural and morphological adaptations are another reason why ants have dominated the globe. In fact, if you missed it you can visit a fantastic interactive map of ants around the globe at antmaps.org where you can easily look at the distribution of our beloved cataglyphis:

Here you can see that the cataglyphis genus alone dominates a huge part of the landscape, and the species *bicolor's locations I've helpfully circled in blue. You're welcome!

Sources: _{CTM in small mammals | Heat shock protein synthesis and thermotolerance in Cataglyphis, an ant from the Sahara desert. | Visual spatial memory in desert ants, Cataglyphis bicolor | Individually different foraging methods in the desert ant Cataglyphis bicolor}

_{Image sources CC0 licensed}